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Learn About The Technology Education And Literacy in Schools Program (Video)

Posted by Roblimo on from the computer-science-for-the-high-school-masses dept.

The Technology Education And Literacy in Schools program (TEALS to its friends) started with one volunteer, a Berkeley CS grad named Kevin Wang who taught high school for a while, then went to Microsoft for a much higher salary than he got from teaching. But before long, he was getting up early and teaching a first period computer science class at a Seattle-area high school that was (sort of) on his way to work. Then some other local high schools came to him and wanted similar programs. Kevin's a smart guy, but not smart enough to be in four places at once, so he recruited coworkers to join him as volunteer computer science educators. Today (as this is being written) TEALS is in 130 high schools and has 475 volunteers in multiple states. Kevin works full time on the program, sponsored by Microsoft, but 78% of the volunteers now come from other companies.

TEALS has stuck with Kevin's original 1st period (usually somewhere between 7:30 and 9:30) schedule not just because it's convenient for many of the volunteers, but because (contrary to teen-nerd stereotypes) 60% of their students are in after-school sports and 20% are in band. The program is growing steadily and they're looking for more volunteers. We'll have another video with Kevin tomorrow, and that's when the transcript of both videos will appear. Meanwhile, you can read the TEALS FAQ and see how you might fit in with this group or one of many other similar ones either as a volunteer, as a student or as a teacher or school administrator interested in giving your students at least a basic grounding in Computer Science. (Coincidentally, today's 'Ask Slashdot' is about tech skills for HS students -- an unintentional but excellent tie-in.)

17 comments

  1. First by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    First post

  2. NTY - You aren't gonna like this. by s.petry · · Score: 3, Insightful

    While I appreciate the gesture, I don't agree that high school students should be doing anything more than using technology. There is an immense amount of knowledge they are missing out on because people are pushing tech down their throats.

    Here are a couple examples: How many kids today can communicate effectively to an audience outside of their friends? Not too many, because we no longer teach people how to write and communicate. How many kids can tell fact from opinion? Again, not too many because we no longer teach people to investigate and question. We teach them that if a person in authority said it, it has to be true.

    So if I teach Bill and Mary how to code in 6th grade, what can they code? Not too much, because they don't have the other knowledge to make good use of programming. The few kids in high school with enough math skills to be performing calculus based physics are not justification for everyone to be learning them.

    The push is to industrialize coding so that we have good little workers that know enough to program what someone tells them to program. This in turn keeps the rich rich, and everyone else gets screwed.

    --

    -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

    1. Re:NTY - You aren't gonna like this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do not shove programming down anyone's throat.

      Instead, leave books about programming around your work-at-home and encourage your children to read them if they're interested.

    2. Re:NTY - You aren't gonna like this. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Teaching everyone coding basics doesn't imply that they will become coders as adults. I think in our technology focused world, coding is simply becoming another basic skill like reading and math. It should be an augmentation to the current set of basic skills taught, not meant to replace the important skills you mentioned like public speaking and investigation/questioning. Besides, learning coding will teach kids ancillary skills as they go through the exercise, you don't learn in a vacuum.

    3. Re:NTY - You aren't gonna like this. by Spy+Handler · · Score: 1

      they're talking about high schools, not 6th grade.

      The guy teaching programming at my old high school didn't know jack shit. Well okay he knew enough to explain the elementary concepts in the book but he was far, far far from an expert in CS. Usually the job falls on math teachers or science teachers because generally speaking the number of CS grads from a reputable school (not ITT tech) available to teach high school is zero.

      Having math teachers teach programming might be OK for getting the kids' feet wet and letting them know that such as thing exists, it might be okay for the average student, but even a slightly above average student such as myself back in the day (yes i was only slightly above average) will be bored to tears. But I suppose in today's world where everyone gets an equal education and no student is allowed to be left behind or get ahead, this may be desirable.

      I think the somewhat bright kids are done the most disservice. The super bright Zuckerbergs of the world will just figure stuff out by themselves and do any kind of coding they want. The average and below will be happy to just follow along and get a passing grade. It's the somewhat bright kids who could benefit most from an expert teacher explaining advanced concepts and answering questions and pushing them to higher standards that they wouldn't have had otherwise.

    4. Re:NTY - You aren't gonna like this. by tomhath · · Score: 1

      The push is to industrialize coding so that we have good little workers

      That's like saying Little League baseball is...I don't know. Your comment makes no sense.

      The push is to enlighten the next generation that you can control a computer, not just depend on "an app for that" which someone else wrote.

    5. Re:NTY - You aren't gonna like this. by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      The super bright Zuckerbergs of the world will just figure stuff out by themselves and do any kind of coding they want.

      Or get someone else to do it, then steal it.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    6. Re:NTY - You aren't gonna like this. by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      Teaching everyone coding basics doesn't imply that they will become coders as adults.

      This is true but useless. Furthermore, it doesn't address the argument that technology is being pushed down kids' throats to the detriment of other more valuable skills.

      I think in our technology focused world, coding is simply becoming another basic skill like reading and math.

      That is an opinion, not a fact. And here is a prime example of a skill not being thought, separating opinions from facts.

      And let's suppose for the sake of arguments that this is true. At least in this country, we are doing a shit-piss-poor jobs at teaching reading and basic mathematics to the general population. It doesn't matter squat if some wealth-to-do neighborhoods (like the one I live in) have excellent schools with kids capable of competing with any kid from, say, Finland. It doesn't matter because for each of those kids, there is a bunch of other kids who graduate from HS without knowing how to add fractions, or read news from different sources and synthesize an informed opinion.

      So, in that background, does it really make any sense to pile more technology when we are fucking up teaching the basics???

      And this very rhetorical question is made on the assumption that coding is nowadays as important as a general skill as reading and math. And that assumption is not accurate at all.

      It should be an augmentation to the current set of basic skills taught,

      But runs counter to your previous sentence saying that coding/technology is a basic skill like math or reading. It is either a basic skill or an augmentation of basic skills. I do not see how it can be both.

      not meant to replace the important skills you mentioned like public speaking and investigation/questioning.

      But that is pretty much the net effect. We cut on fine arts and history electives and we do a crappy job at teaching how to read and write. Without that, it is very hard, if not impossible to learn how to investigate and question, let alone see examples of public speaking or participate in such activities.

      If we are already compromising teaching of those skills, what do you think happens we pile on yet another subject, one which requires a context for it to be meaningful (technology)? Something has to give, and it is typically the thing that is not new and shinny.

      Besides, learning coding will teach kids ancillary skills as they go through the exercise, you don't learn in a vacuum.

      I've been a teaching assistant for programming and business-related computer classes when I was in CS grad school. And sorry to say, but that statement above is not true. You need to have a grasp of basic skills before learning reasonable examples of how to use technology for solving problems. This is more important for kids.

    7. Re:NTY - You aren't gonna like this. by s.petry · · Score: 1

      If you can not make sense of the comments (yes, it is plural) that is because you are choosing to comprehend only the parts of the writing you like. That is exactly what I am referring to where people can not communicate effectively by the way. If you want a Baseball analogy, here ya go. You don't teach a kid to run the bases for a home run without teaching how to bat, and you don't teach kids to just yell "You're Out!", you teach them to catch, throw, and rules of the game.

      Programming without the ability to communicate is good for whom exactly? Programming without the logic, ethics, math skills, and other world knowledge makes a poor programmer. Poor in both potential meanings.

      And to your "an app for that" have you ever seen what code.org is? It's drag and drop, it's not coding. It is an application that writes code for people and uses proprietary APIs, graphics, etc.. to do so. Sure, you can manually write things outside of the APIs, but as with my comment about the few people strong enough with calculus the numbers don't jive with "everyone" learning. The overwhelming majority of people learning to "program" in school are learning how to use an application.

      --

      -The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.

  3. Video articles suck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's like Fark.TV, with sweat and dead man's balls.

    I can read much faster than you can speak, and not everyone has broadband. Videos are about the presenter, not the material.

  4. How About... by BlueStrat · · Score: 2

    ...We first teach them basic reading, writing, math, history, and critical-thinking/problem-solving skills that are sorely lacking among HS grads?

    Oh wait, can't have that! The little bastards might figure out how screwed they are by the crony-capitalist fascist oligarchy and actually be able to change the status-quot!

    Strat

    --
    Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    1. Re:How About... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While I don't think programming should be a core subject, I do think it would be good for schools to teach a "technology class" in let's say 6th grade. Maybe about 45 days of 45 minute classes covering...
      Keyboarding
      Navigating various operating systems.
      How to install various operating systems.
      Office software
      Networking
      Programming (one week only), perhaps using QBasic.
      Hardware (taking apart a computer, learning about various parts)
      Perhaps a quick intro to LaTeX over a week.
      Etc.

      What would be more important perhaps is to have a logic course at some point. The kind of intro to logic you'd get in college.

    2. Re:How About... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've taught through TEALS at two public highschools (I'm an iOS programmer by day).

      The TEALS program is for high-school. The demographic is primarily Juniors and Seniors, but some Freshmen and Sophomores. Computer Science doesn't count toward the core science requirements in most states(I've taught in Kentucky and New York and neither does). As an elective class you generally get kids signing up who are either really interested or who's parents/guidance-councilor push them, either way they are generally pretty engaged.

      Ideally, the kids should be ready to take the AP computer science test which will hopefully make it easier to get into the college they want (if they are actually interested in programming).

    3. Re:How About... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Teach them how to spot a Sophist, no. Just teach them false paradigms. No need for teaching about logical fallacies, human behavior, or their own weaknesses.

    4. Re:How About... by luis_a_espinal · · Score: 1

      While I don't think programming should be a core subject, I do think it would be good for schools to teach a "technology class" in let's say 6th grade. Maybe about 45 days of 45 minute classes covering... Keyboarding Navigating various operating systems. How to install various operating systems. Office software Networking Programming (one week only), perhaps using QBasic. Hardware (taking apart a computer, learning about various parts) Perhaps a quick intro to LaTeX over a week. Etc.

      What would be more important perhaps is to have a logic course at some point. The kind of intro to logic you'd get in college.

      LaTeX? You are batshit crazy. And I say this as a person who loves LaTeX and has used it for actual projects several times.

  5. Microsoft Education © by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    “Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!” ref

  6. Volunteer? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I don't like the use of the word volunteer here. Teachers need to be paid more not less.